Lessons of the Holocaust
Embassy of Russia in Ireland
On January 29 the annual International Holocaust Memorial Day commemoration was held at the Mansion House in Dublin. The Memorial Day was chosen by the United Nations in 2005 to recognize that on January 27, 1945, the Soviet Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim) Nazi concentration camp in Poland and stopped the extermination of people there and other death camps in Poland, Germany and Austria. An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar took part in this event and said many suitable words about the rise of disinformation, antisemitism, all forms of racism and the trend towards Holocaust distortion and denial in Ireland, as well as about the need to remember the lessons of the Holocaust.
Sadly, the Taoiseach has also used this significant occasion to once again promote the Western invented cliché about “Russia’s evil and brutal war in Ukraine”, wrapping it in the concept of intolerance towards racism, hatred and violence. It should be noted that precisely Western support, including that of the Irish government, for the ultranationalist, neo-Nazi regime in Kiev, that glorifies Bandera and other World War II Nazi collaborators, has led to the current military confrontation in Ukraine. Therefore it does not seem appropriate in any way for the Irish government to try to teach anyone morality, let alone in the context of the World War II, in which the Soviet Union has lost 27 million of its citizens in order to liberate the world from the scourge of Nazism, while Ireland enjoyed neutrality with the Taoiseach of the time sending best birthday wishes to Adolf Hitler in April of 1945, when the Soviet and Allied soldiers were still dying in the battle against Nazis*. This is history, but it always makes sense to remember its lessons.
*Correction
The Embassy apologizes for the unintended error in the remarks, referring to the Taoiseach Eamon de Valera communication with the German government in April of 1945. In fact, indeed, the text of the remarks should read as follows:
“…with the Taoiseach of the time expressing his condolences on the death of Adolf Hitler in April of 1945…”
This technical error does not change in any way the overall point of the remarks.